Wine Advisor
Alain Hudelot Noellat, Clos de Vougeot Grand Cru 2017
View analysis
Description
Tasting notes
Reviewed by: Neal Martin
The 2017 Clos de Vougeot Grand Cru offers lilting red berry fruit laced with cola and crushed stone on the nose, although I would have liked more presence and intensity at this stage. The palate is medium-bodied with grippy tannin and quite masculine in style. The rather simple finish needs more mineralité. Personally, I prefer some of the Premier Crus from the domaine this year. Maybe this just did not shine on the day.
Reviewed by: William Kelley
Aromas of wild berries, cassis, incense, smoked duck and rose hip introduce the 2017 Clos de Vougeot Grand Cru, a full-bodied, ample and layered wine that's quite charming and open-knit by the standards of Clos Vougeout and even by the standards of this routinely elegant cuvée. Framed by fine-grained tannins, it's pure, fleshy and elegant, and it should shine at a comparatively early age.
About the Producer
In 1962, Alain inherited two small parcels of his father's Chambolle-Musigny Grand Cru Les Chames, plus several vineyards from his marriage to the great-granddaughter of Charles Noellat, a Vosne-Romanee winery family, and he established Domaine Alain Hudelot Noellat. The winery is now about 10 hectares (24 hectares) in size. The estate now has about 10 hectares (24 acres) of vineyards with an average age of over 50 years, including several dating back to 1920, including the vineyard at Romanée-Saint-Vivant. The winery is known for its lighter wines with nuanced and natural flavors. Now managed by third-generation grandson Charles van Canneyts, Hudelot-Nollat is not so different from its grandfather's time, when it was less visible in the thicker wines, but now it has the advantage of refinement, often with fresh, bright fruit, balanced acidity and silky tannins. The vinification is entirely de-stemmed, using local yeasts that are not comparable to artificial yeasts, with a relatively long pre-fermentation cold soak, mainly with trampled skins, and 18 months in new barrels at 20-60%. In 2012, Charles also started to buy grapes from other winegrowers under his own name to make his wine. Vosne-Romanee is a blend of three first growths, Suchots, Beaumonts and Malconsorts, and as young as it is, the Hudelot-Noellat family owns three first growths that are over 100 years old, so this VR is ostensibly a village wine, but with a first growth heritage. Jasper Morris MW has high praise for Domaine Hudelot-Noëllat. He believes that while Alain Hudelot's management has produced fine style reds, Charles van Canneyt has taken over and given the wines more concentration and backbone, retaining their elegance, but with more ageing potential and balance.
